(This is a CSS-enabled article. Sorry, but if your browser is not CSS-enabled this page will not view correctly)

A Brief Biography of Herbert W. Armstrong
(1892-1986).

A Concise Look at the Founder of the
Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W.
Armstrong.

Where Did He Come From? What Did He
Believe?

My Credentials to make comments about Armstrong and about the Worldwide Church of God.

Herbert W. Armstrong (1892 – 1986)
was the founder of the 1933 Radio Church of God which he
later renamed Worldwide Church of God. He was chancellor
of Ambassador College; publisher of The Plain Truth
magazine in several languages; presenter of The World
Tomorrow radio and television programmes; father of
radio-television evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong; president of
the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation; patron
of the Ambassador Auditorium concert series and
(self-styled) as "Ambassador for World
Peace."

In 1892 Herbert Wright Armstrong was
born in Des Moines, Iowa, to parents who were of the Quaker
faith. As an Armstrong, he was related to the infamous Armstrong clan of outlaws who had caused havoc as 'border reivers' on the English/Scottish border in the 16th century. Herbert began a career in business sales and advertising around
1908. Most of his early life until 1926 was devoted to selling
marketing and advertising services. During this time he adopted
his distinctive copy and layout style of presentation in which
upper and lower case words were mixed within the
text for emphasis and impact. This writing style certainly became
his own trademark which he never abandoned throughout his life.
But his compelling writing style has since sometimes been
ridiculed as an example of the worst journalistic writing
excesses, ie., using sensationalist appearance in order to cover up a lack
of evidence, compelling argumentative skills or real substance within any particular
article.

In 1917 he married Loma Dillon. They had four children: Richard David (who was tragically
killed in a car crash in England in 1958), Beverly, Dorothy and Garner Ted,
later to become well-known as an Armstrongist
evangelist. Armstrong's first wife Loma died in 1966.

He married a much younger woman called Ramona
Martin in 1977, a marriage which many members of his WCG organisation
deeply frowned upon even though they did not dare communicate
their doubts to the fiery and sometimes explosive Armstrong who
effectively held all power within the organisation. To personally challenge Armstrong would result in immediate disfellowshipping. Armstrong was aged 85 at the time, while Ramona, a very striking and beautiful woman, was about 40 and was divorced with a living husband. For decades his teaching had forbidden a church member to remarry after a divorce until the death of the former spouse. If a prospective member was married to someone who had a living previous spouse, no matter how long ago the previous divorce had been, and no matter if the current marriage had small children, baptism was denied unless the prospective member ended the current marriage. His austere policy had also highly frowned on any sort of inter-racial marriage but his new wife was part-Cherokee. It appeared to some that Armstrong was quite prepared to flout his own doctrines when he discovered a beautiful young woman who was prepared to marry him. So he wed Ramona Martin, a divorced church member less than half his age with a living ex-husband. That marriage
ended in a bitter and acrimonious divorce in 1982.

The Bricket Wood, England campus of 'Ambassador College' one of three colleges founded by Herbert W. Armstrong; the other two were at Pasadena, California and Big Sandy, Texas.

Foundation of his Own Belief
System

In his early life Herbert W. Armstrong
abandoned the faith of his parents. At some time around the
mid-1920s when he was living in Oregon, his wife Loma became
friendly with a lady who was a member of the Church of God;
Seventh Day. He is said to have been converted to her beliefs
after initially attempting to prove them to be wrong. He
described it in interesting terms: That she "kept Saturday for
Sunday," and that he would prove to her that the Bible taught
somewhere that "thou shalt keep Sunday," indicating an early
total unfamiliarity with Scripture. This story was repeated
endlessly by Armstrong, embarrassing those members of his organisation who already
understood that most of traditional Christianity (if not entirely all) never claimed
Sunday to be another Sabbath day, but saw it as 'The Lord's
Day.' Even though many Christians will loosely apply the term "sabbath" to Sunday
this, in most cases, is merely an expression which should not imply that they are unaware of the differences between the Mosaic sabbath and The Lord's Day.

In 1927 Herbert W. Armstrong was
baptized by a Baptist minister (something he certainly never
mentioned in later years), but he continued as a member of the
Church of God. In 1931 Armstrong was ordained by the Oregon
Conference of The Church of God, but in 1933 the Church of God
group into which Armstrong had been baptized and ordained split
into two factions. Herbert W. Armstrong followed the breakaway
group which was led by A. N. Dugger who then formed the Church
of God; 7th Day with its American headquarters in Salem, West
Virginia and (real or claimed) "world headquarters" in Jerusalem.
In the same year of 1933 Herbert W. Armstrong took to the
airwaves for the very first time with a religious programme on
radio station KORE in Eugene, Oregon where he also pastored a
church congregation. The broadcast over KORE gave rise to the
name Radio Church of God. In 1934 he began publication of
The Plain Truth magazine.

Herbert W. Armstrong received his ministerial
credentials from the Church of God; Seventh Day. Elder John
Kiesz of Denver, Colorado (who died in 1996), an associate of
Herbert Armstrongs in the 1920s and '30s in that organisation wrote: "In 1931 he [HWA] was ordained to the
ministry, and in 1932 he received his Ministerial License
Certificate from the Oregon Conference of the Church of God,
signed by O.J. Runcorn as President, and Mrs. I.E. Curtis as
Secretary."

After documenting and explaining his belief
that the Bible required true Christians to observe the biblical
Holy Days as set forth mainly in Leviticus 23 (as well as the 7th
day sabbath), the leadership of the Church of God; Seventh Day,
told him that although some of them agreed with him, that this
doctrine could not be taught as many members would be offended.
Herbert Armstrong then decided he had to discontinue his
association with that group. A few years later (around 1937) the
Church of God; Seventh Day revoked his ministerial credentials
for doctrinal differences.

As editor and publisher of The Plain
Truth, Armstrong received press accreditation from the United
Nations to cover the UN Charter Conference in San Francisco in
1945. It is claimed that Armstrong continued to have a variety of
other press credentials until his death.

Herbert W. Armstrong preached a "gospel" that
was certainly different from that of mainstream Christianity
mainly because he was convinced that they were preaching "a
counterfeit message" but also partly because he did not
primarily intend to attract members, but to serve as a base with
which to warn the world of a timetable of coming events. The
climax of those events, in his concept, would result in the
return of Jesus Christ to Earth as King of kings and Lord of
lords in order to establish the Kingdom of God which he equated
with a 1,000 year "millenium." Some Armstrong adherents would later claim (and often still claim) that belief in a literal, 1,000 year 'millenium' was something that Mr Armstrong "restored to the church" even though this whole theological approach was lifted straight out of Adventism, which pre-dated Armstrong by quite a few years. Of course, belief in a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ is certainly older than Adventism, but it was Adventism, to say nothing of 'Dispensationalism,' which developed the concept as a fully organised doctrine; Armstrong was a late-comer to this and certainly not a "restorer" of the teaching.

Main Points of Armstrongist
Doctrine

Does Hebrews 4:9 Support Sabbath-Keeping?

Herbert W. Armstrong claimed that Hebrews 4:9 supports the keeping of the Sabbath day by Christians, but is this really so?
The problem he faced was that not a single word in the theological New Testament epistles could be employed as a command for Christian Sabbath observance, so maybe there was some sense of desparation at his use of this verse,

'There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God'

In his consideration of this verse Armstrong claimed that it is interesting that the writer, in considering the subject of 'rest' (Hebrews 3:11-4:11), suddenly, in verse 9, switches from the use of the Greek word 'katapausen' (rest) to the use of 'sabbatismos.' Armstrong claimed that 'sabbatismos' was a reference to the weekly sabbath day and, therefore, Christians should still be keeping the sabbath day. However, neither Mr Armstrong nor the writers he used were really conversant with New Testament Greek. Truthfully, this assertion is just plain wrong!
In fact the Greek word which refers to the sabbath is 'sabbaton' (word 4521 in Strongs). 'Sabbatismos' however is not a grammatical variation. The closest meaning is a 'sabbatism,' 'a rest' or 'the repose of Christianity.' Why does the writer of Hebrews suddenly switch to this world? Simply because while earlier writing of the 'rest' which Christians must enter into through Christ, with earlier references already made to both the sabbath and the promised land as types of this true rest (verses 4,8,10) now the writer becomes more specific with a play on the word 'sabbath.' He uses the concept of a 'sabbatism.' He is stating that an eternal 'sabbatism' awaits Christians in Heaven and in the Eternal State.

Interestingly, the expression, 'the seventh day' (Gk: 'hemeron hebdomen') already occurs in this section (4:4), here is a reference to the literal seventh day and if the writer of Hebrews is suggesting that all must continue to assemble for worship on that specific day it seems highly likely that he would have made this clear by using this same expression again. But, on the contrary, the writer spiritualizes the meaning of the sabbath, introducing the concept of an eternal sabbatism. We find our true rest in Christ alone (Matthew 11:28-30). So Hebrews 4:9, far from being a plea for Christians to assemble on the seventh day, goes beyond any such approach and refers to the final Eternal State of rest in Christ which all Christians should aspire to.
Robin A. Brace. 1994.

Although Armstrong always taught that faith in
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the baptism of believers into
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were central tenets
of belief and practice for Christians, he also taught certain other beliefs or practices
which mainstream Christianity believes to be either
(a) non-binding because of the New Covenant, (b) plainly heretical, or (c) completely irrelevant to biblical teaching. Armstrong
taught:

1. Strict observance of the seventh day Sabbath
from Friday sunset until Saturday sunset.

2. Strict observance of the Judaic 'Holydays'
as outlined, mainly, in Leviticus 23. However, these were not to
be observed in a traditional Jewish way but in the light of the
knowledge of Christ.

3. Recognition of the "knowledge" that the
British and American peoples were descended from the 'Lost
Tribes of Israel.' This "knowledge" meaning that certain
prophecies were applicable to those peoples. Armstrong claimed that this belief was peculiar to him, having been "restored to the true church" by "God's Apostle" (himself). In fact, his very poor booklet on this subject is now widely believed to have been heavily plagiarized from other writers of 'British Israelitism.' Certainly the booklet, entitled, The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy, was weak, poorly argued, and based on little more than folk lore and legend.

4. That Armstrong himself was not only an
Apostle but the direct end-time equivalent of John the
Baptist, and that just as John had prepared the way for the
First Coming of Jesus, Armstrong (and he alone) was
"preparing the way for the Second Coming."

5.That members needed to tithe (that is, give a
tenth of their income) in order to support this unique end-time
God-given ministry! In fact, Armstrong taught the requirement
for, not one, but three tithes! So Worldwide Church of God
members were effectively required to hand over 30% of their wages
to the WCG (The first tenth was to support the wages of the
ministry, the second was for members to pay for their attendance
at the eight-day Feast of Tabernacles, the annual autumn
vacation/assembly, and the third 10% was to be sent to the Church
every third year in a cycle of seven, which was used to help those in the Church who
were in financial trouble. Deut 26:12).

6. The belief that the WCG was not part of
Protestantism but had a separate history. In order to further
this claim, Armstrong himself and several of his WCG writers made
several attempts to trace a history of groups with similarly
heretical beliefs to themselves right back through Church history
to the first century AD. This meant claiming that groups as mixed
and different as the Waldenses (mostly a very worthy
group) and the Ebionites (plainly heretical) were part of
their own lineage. Many Armstrong admirers were won over at the time before finally having to admit (often years later) that these attempts to establish an Armstrongist "true church" lineage amounted to a most appalling abuse of church history, this abuse included claiming that certain groups kept the seventh day sabbath, when no such evidence exists.

7. The belief that the New Testament term
'born again' did not refer to Christian conversion
but to the spiritual birth of the resurrection (it did not bother
Armstrong that 98% of Christianity, including many formidable Greek experts, disagreed with
him).

8. That the Christians in all denominations
(whether Protestant or Catholic) would eventually have to accept
Armstrongism ("the knowledge of the truth") or they could not be
saved. Currently, non-Armstrongist Christians had been misled
into a "false conversion" and were "false Christians."

9. Whereas most of Christianity teaches one
resurrection, and many other more fringe Christian groups teach
two resurrections, Armstrong actually taught three
resurrections! (Those in the third resurrection would only be
resurrected in order to immediately go into the Lake of
Fire!) The majority of Common Greek-fluent Bible expositors and theologians would consider that the concept of perceiving three resurrections in Revelation 20 is based on a very flawed understanding of that chapter.

10. The Christian Godhead is a family currently
made up of two personages, the Father, whom Jesus revealed, and
the Son, Jesus Himself. However, the Godhead will later expand to
include billions of personages, as the destiny of humans, if they
obey the Law of God and keep the faith of Jesus. Armstrong taught
that true Christians would eventually become God beings.
The Holy Spirit is not a third Person of the Godhead, but rather
it is the power that emanated from God the Father and Jesus
Christ that can be in mankind making us one with them and
enabling us to keep God's commandments as Jesus
did.

11. That members ought not go to doctors for
medical help since this was undermining their faith in 'divine
healing.' However, from the early 1980s this was only very patchily taught and observed in
the organisation and many people accepted medical advice, aid and
even surgery from doctors including many ministers and Armstrong
himself, who, in fact had much medical treatment in his later years! Therefore, rather like the modern health, wealth and prosperity gospel teachers, this was an area of incredible hypocrisy and double-standards.

That the victory of Christ is not complete
until His Second Coming (whereas traditional Christianity teaches
that Christ's victory was complete with His death and
resurrection).

The Stanley Rader
Years

Many members of the Worldwide Church of God
were utterly perplexed and puzzled by a man called Stanley
Rader who was a lawyer who appeared to come from almost
nowhere to take a leading position in the organisation almost
overnight. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia sums it up this
way:

"Following a series of scandals involving
Garner Ted Armstrong which began shortly after the dawning of the
1970s ... Garner Ted Armstrong was finally removed as
second-in-command of the church and replaced by attorney Stanley
Rader, who had enjoyed a long relationship with Herbert W.
Armstrong. From the early 1970s until approximately 1978-9.
Stanley Rader created and directed another organization funded by
the church called the Ambassador International Cultural
Foundation. This development sparked a public relations war
between the younger evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong and financial
strategist Stanley Rader, for continuing influence with the now
elderly Armstrong regarding present financial dealings and who
would inherit the future legitimate control of his wealthy church
college. Following a climax when the church was placed into
involuntary financial receivership by action of the State of
California, legal battles to the USSC, California state
legislature, with a major 60 Minutes segment on CBS, Stanley
Rader retired with a large cash bonus from Armstrong, followed by
a substantial pension."

(See article, Herbert W.
Armstrong http://en.wikipedia.org/)

I am informed that during court proceedings, Rader once made the incredible claim that he had owned homes in Beverly Hills, Pasadena and Tucson, all initially financed by the church. He sold the Beverly Hills home at a tidy profit and told reporters during a break in proceedings, "Buy low, sell high. I don't take 'stupid pills,' you know."

Armstrong's Writings

Herbert W. Armstong was a keen writer and most
of his works were stamped with his early style of
attention-grabbing sensationalism that had been popular in the
1920s and 1930s but was seen as very passé by the 1950s
and decidely embarrassing by the 1970s; this involved the mixing of upper and lower-case letters right across any written script and the over-use of exclamation marks. He wrote many articles
and booklets and just a few full-length books. However, shortly
after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, disputes arose over the
copyrights to these works when the Worldwide Church of God
withdrew them from circulation. Other Armstrongist groups argued
and continue to argue over the rights to use these books.Some of
these groups then attempted to reprint and circulate the writings
of Herbert W. Armstrong and this eventually led to a major and
lengthy court case between the Worldwide Church of God and the
Philadelphia Church of God which still largely accepts
many Armstrongist doctrines. Following mutual resolution of that
case the Philadelphia Church of God gained legal
copyrights to some of the most noteworthy works and these
include:

Mystery of the Ages

The Incredible Human
Potential

The Missing Dimension in
Sex

The United States and British Commonwealth
in Prophecy

The Seven Laws of
Success

The United States And Britain In
Prophecy

The Demise of Herbert
W. Armstrong

Joseph Tkach Snr. who replaced Armstrong as WCG 'Pastor General' following Armstrong's death in January 1986. Mr Tkach preached at Wembley
Conference Centre, London, twice during the late 1980s endearing
himself to British WCG members with a warm and caring approach
which had often been absent from WCG leaders. He further endeared himself by showing a firm resolve to cut back on previous lavish WCG overspending within its ministry.

Armstrong died in 1986 after
appointing Joseph W. Tkach to be his
successor.

In the years that followed, Tkach
commenced a doctrinal review process that led to a change in many
of the central beliefs and doctrines that the sect had
developed under Herbert W. Armstrong. This process included a
decision to withhold from further circulation all previous
publications that had been authored by Herbert W. Armstrong.
Following the major changes in doctrine and practice by the
Worldwide Church of God, many members left the organization,
resulting in a dramatic fall in church donations. Joseph W. Tkach
Snr. died in 1995. Just as he had been Armstrong's hand-picked
successor, he chose his son Joseph Tkach Jr. to assume the office
of Pastor General and control of the Worldwide
Church. The title of 'apostle' has not been claimed by either of Mr Armstrong's successors, as far as the writer is aware.

Today the WCG organisation seeks to avoid being labelled
"Armstrongist" in teaching and it seeks to follow the
route of conservative evangelicalism but, without doubt,
Armstrongist influences remain entrenched in many longer-term
members, including certain ministers. Meanwhile numerous off-shoot Armstrongist groups now exist of which
the United Church of God, the Philadelphia
Church of God and the LivingChurch of God are
perhaps the best known.

Robin A. Brace.
2006.

You must also read the testimony of my own involvement
in Armstrongism.